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Maddux cools Rangers

Ace at his best, keeps hitters off balance

Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2003

By Bill ZackMorris News Service

Braves catcher Henry Blanco applies the tag to the Rangers' Juan Gonzalez in the seventh inning Wednesday night after taking the throw from second baseman Marcus Giles. Gonzalez was out at the plate.John Bazemore/AP

Maddux took the matter into his own hands Wednesday night, silencing his doubters, at least temporarily, with eight splendid innings against Texas, holding the homer-happy Rangers to a pair of runs on nine hits in the Braves' 5-2 win before a crowd of 30,836 at Turner Field.

This was Maddux at his best, changing speeds effectively and commanding his pitches on both sides of the plate, a sight glimpsed only occasionally this season. He worked eight innings for the first time since last Sept. 2 and took his second straight win, his fifth of the season.

There's no questioning Maddux's pedigree - after all, four plaques with Cy Young's name and 278 career wins will silence most critics - but the 37-year-old righthander had not completed a game since the 2001 season and he had twice left shutouts this season after seven innings.

That tends to leave teammates wondering which Maddux will appear on the mound, the vintage model who has been hailed as this generation's greatest pitcher or the pitcher who hadn't made it out of the fifth inning in two of his last three starts and tends to fatigue after 85 pitches.

Maddux put up six straight zeroes on the board, using just 49 pitches to do it, as the Rangers gave him an outing that even he couldn't describe as taxing. He sandwiched a double play ball from Hank Blalock, who came into the game batting an American League-leading .355, around singles by Michael Young and Alex Rodriguez in the first, then didn't give up another hit until Blalock lined a single to right in the fourth.

Maddux, who had won just one of his last six starts, didn't allow a runner to advance beyond first until the sixth, when Einar Diaz's soft single fell in front of Chipper Jones in left and Young tapped back to Maddux, sending Diaz to second. Maddux then coaxed Blalock to roll to Giles at second, ending the threat.

In the seventh, back-to-back doubles by Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro, and Juan Gonzalez's single through the middle made it 4-2. A lightning relay from Jones to Giles to catcher Henry Blanco cut down Gonzalez at the plate trying to score on Diaz's double, ending the rally.

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John Smoltz struck out two of the three Rangers he faced in the ninth to register his 22nd save, his second in two nights against Texas.

The Braves scored the game's first run in the second when Robert Fick dashed home after being picked off second by catcher Diaz. Shortstop Rodriguez's throw handcuffed third baseman Blalock, and Fick, who had sent a soft double to left with one out, scored as the ball rolled toward the visitors dugout.

The first meaningful mistake made by Rangers starter John Thomson was a 3 and 2 offering to Gary Sheffield in the fourth. Marcus Giles opened the inning by lining a single off the left field wall and Sheffield followed by launching Thomson's 92 m.p.h. fastball into the left field seats, a drive estimated at 414 feet, his team-leading 15th home run of the season.

Blanco made it 4-0 in the fifth when he doubled to right-center and scored on Maddux's opposite-field single.

The Braves added a run to take a 5-2 lead in the seventh, when Giles and Sheffield singled, Jones walked, and Fick drew a bases-loaded walk from reliever Rosman Garcia to force Giles across the plate.